Hawthorn veteran Sam Mitchell says in-demand star Lance Franklin deserves to become the highest-paid player in the AFL club's history.
The Hawks are increasingly confident of staving off an enormous Greater Western Sydney bid for the two-time Coleman Medallist, after upgrading their initial offer to re-sign Franklin.
Hawks president Andrew Newbold on Sunday indicated the five-year offer had the potential to make Franklin the club's best-paid player ever and Mitchell on Monday said teammates would have no problem with that.
"The salary cap's bigger than it's ever been and he's as big a player in the game as there's ever been," Mitchell said.
"To be honest, I think he probably deserves the biggest contract Hawthorn's ever had.
"... The fact that he's got a bigger contract than all of the rest of us hanging above him, I don't think that would be a surprise to anyone.
"Players, we're not all jocks, we do understand the way the salary cap works. He's a good player, he deserves a lot of money."
Mitchell, who said Franklin was likely to return against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday after missing the weekend win over Port Adelaide with a minor knee injury, also revealed Franklin was regularly ribbed by teammates over his contract talks.
The forward has put off a decision until the end of the season, as he wrestles with whether to use free agency to switch from the top-placed Hawks to bottom-placed GWS, whose offer dwarfs what he would make by staying a Hawk.
"It's not taboo. You're not going to have this big elephant in the room," Mitchell said.
"Everyone knows that his contract's not signed and everyone wants him to sign and he's not.
"It's not taboo. We talk to him about it and heckle him about it."
Mitchell said Hawthorn players were similarly jocular about the potential for him and Richmond's Trent Cotchin to be retrospectively awarded last year's Brownlow Medal, if Essendon captain Jobe Watson should be stripped of the award over the Bombers' drugs controversy.
Mitchell said he didn't want to win the game's top individual honour at someone else's expense.
"If you're going to win a Brownlow that's probably not how you want to do it, is it?" he said.
Share
